Indonesia to host world food exposition next week

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sat, 01/23/2010 12:48 PM

The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) is gearing up to host an international conference and exhibition on food, aimed at introducing domestic producers to the global market.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will launch the two-day "Feed the World" event on Jan. 28 at the Jakarta Convention Center.

Hundreds of participants - including food producers, business associations, academics and international bodies - will take part.

Several Cabinet ministers will speak at the event, as well as representatives from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and other international institutions.

Among those slated to deliver presentations at the event's seminars are Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto, Agriculture Minister Suswono, Forestry Ministry Zulkifli Hasan, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi.

Industry Minister Mohamad Suleman Hidayat, also the Kadin chairman, said Friday at a press conference that participants would showcase innovations and various types of new products from the agricultural, plantation, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery sectors.

"We want to show the world that we're not just going to fulfill domestic food demand, but also help meet the world's food needs," he said.

In its 2009-2014 road map on food development, the government is looking to promote 10 key commodities: the four "strategic commodities" of rice, corn, soybean and sugar, and the six export-potential commodities of palm oil, tea, coffee, cacao, shrimp and tuna.

Hidayat said the road map was the first step for the government to achieve the target of making Indonesia a top food-producing nation by 2030.

Indonesia is currently the world's biggest producer of crude palm oil (CPO), accounting for 47 percent of global production. CPO pro-duction is expected to reach 23.6 million tons this year, an 18 percent increase from last year's total of 20 million tons.

The road map allows domestic CPO producers to expand their plantations from a total 7.9 million hectares as of the end of 2009 to 9.7 million hectares in 2015.

The expansion is expected to help boost output to 36.6 million tons.

Production of another key crop, coffee, is expected to reach 737,000 tons this year, or 142 percent more than domestic consumption. The 433,000-ton surplus will be exported, under the road map.

Coffee exports are expected to increase by 4.69 annually until 2020, when 636,000 tons of the total production of 973,000 tons is expected to be exported. (bbs)